HOLLYWOOD—The Advanced Imaging Society and The VR Society will continue to influence the 2017 awards season when it presents the 8th Annual Lumiere™ Awards this year honoring creative work in movies, TV and expanded Virtual Reality categories at Warner Bros. Studios, February 13, 2017, in Hollywood. The black-tie gathering will begin at 6:30PM with a sit down dinner, followed by the awards ceremony at the Steven J. Ross Theater.

Director, writer and producer Jon Favreau, director of Disney’s blockbuster “The Jungle Book” movie and creator of the “Gnomes and Goblins” VR experience with Wevr and Reality One, will be presented with the Society’s 2017 Harold Lloyd Award for Filmmaking. Favreau directed Marvel’s “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2” movies, and he also directed “Chef”, “Cowboys and Aliens” and “Elf”. His films have grossed over 2.5 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Previous honorees have included Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, Jean-Pierre Juenet, Victoria Alonso and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

“Harold Lloyd was a passionate advocate for using new technology to thrill audiences,” said Suzanne Lloyd, Chairman of Harold Lloyd Entertainment. “He would be delighted that we are honoring Jon for exciting so many movie and VR fans worldwide,” Lloyd added.

The Society’s annually recognizes “Distinguished Creative Achievement” for the use of advanced imaging technologies including 3D, HDR and VR. Awards will be presented for distinguished achievement in storytelling for 3D and HDR Live Action and Animated Movie categories, among others. The Virtual Reality categories have expanded this year to include Best VR Experience, Best VR Film Experience, Best VR Animation and CGI, Best Episodic Content (360-degree), Best Live Action (360-degree), Best VR Documentary, Best VR Journalism, Best VR Sports, Best VR Music, Best VR Advertising/Branded Content, and Best VR Gaming, The Awards Ceremony and dinner is presented by AMD. A complete list of nominees can be seen here:

http://www.advancedimagingsociety.com/awards/2017-nominees/.

Also new this year is an opportunity for the media to visit curated and the award nominated VR content in all categories. The Advanced Imaging Society and The VR Society will offer a VIP media preview from 10AM-12PM on February 13 at the Steven J. Ross Theater at Warner Bros.

Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC Corp., creator of the HTC VIVE virtual reality system, will be presented with the organization’s Sir Charles Wheatstone Award. Society Awards Chair Buzz Hays stated “With the HTC VIVE, Cher Wang and her team have created a groundbreaking room- scale VR platform that has enabled the production of a dazzling number of immersive VR experiences which have pushed the boundaries of entertainment. The result has surprised and delighted the industry and consumers,” Hays added. Previous Wheatstone winners include John Lasseter and Pixar, Sky TV, The BBC, and Sir David Attenborough.

The Society1s Century Award will be presented to Google Earth VR. This application allows you to travel the world, fly over cities, stand at the highest mountain peaks, and even soar upwards into space using the HTC Vive. “The Google VR Experience empowers every citizen of the world to explore and learn about our world with VR,” said Society President Jim Chabin. “This achievement will enrich countless lives and expand our understanding of our planet in the coming years, and we are thrilled to honor Google's virtual reality team,” Chabin added. The Century Award is presented rarely and is reserved for people and achievements the Society deems to have “created a milestone” technology or piece of content. Director James Cameron was previously honored with the Century Award for “Avatar.”

In addition to the honorees, confirmed special guests to attend include Doug Liman and Ivan Reitman.

The Society’s Gold Lumiere™ statuettes are made by the R.S. Owens Company of Chicago, who also manufactures the Oscars for the Academy Awards. They depict the Roman Goddess of Dawn, “Aurora”.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

LOL! Josh Gad is growing on me and this clip he posted to his Instagram account is another feather in his cap.

We are all looking for as much detail as possible for the upcoming STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI and sometimes a few of us might take it a bit too far. Enter Josh Gad.No, Gad is not involved with the STAR WARS mega movie - he is filming Kenneth Branagh's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS with a certain Daisy Ridley though.

Gad invites Ridley into his trailer for some (I assume playful) interrogation to obtain some details for the movie. He wants to know (and rightly so) if the title is speaking of Rey's character being a Jedi, or if it is solely just Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker, or both. A great question.

Ridley deals with the confrontation with suitable poise. Will she respond? Have a look: